Sometimes You Get What You Ask For

The Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach will receive $600,000 from the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund, something they applied for nearly seven months ago.

Executive Director Barry Dyck says it was a nice surprise. “I was quite accustomed to actually receiving considerably less than what was applied for. It's very common to get partial funding on requests, but in this case, we are getting everything we asked for and that's delightful.”

Dyck says the money will go towards two projects. “The summer pavilion will replace the big entertainment tent, and our furnaces and air conditioning units in our 26-year-old building need replacement. And because we do a variety of cultural and heritage events, we thought we might qualify for the grant, and evidently, we do qualify.”

The idea, says Dyck is to have the summer pavilion ready and functional for May 1 when they open for the season in 2017. He says the secure building will be used for a variety of events including their educational program, festival events, children's entertainment, corporate picnics, family events, and wedding receptions.

Dyck notes, “We will not be afraid of it blowing away as we were with our tent Monday, [during Pioneer Days] because it will be a secure building with two sides, and it will be open so we can get fresh air. It will be covered by glass doors we can close, but will still have a lot of good light coming in.”

Because they haven't quite raised all of the money needed for the building yet, Dyck adds, they are very excited when people send them pledges and contributions.